“I was in Gaza in 2009, a delegation at the invitation of the UN-RWA, and I saw for myself what the 22-day bombardment had done in December and January of ’08 and ’09, with villages leveled, with hospitals shot full of holes,” added the co-op’s Dennis James.

However, many New Yorkers thought boycotting Israel was dangerous.

“We’re definitely against the boycott. Why should I vote against Israel?” asked Bob Seidenberg.

“It has nothing to do with food. There are people who want Israel torn apart and everybody to be massacred and America’s not going to let that happen,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

“It’s outrageous and it’s wrong, anything that would hurt Israel, which is our strongest ally,” added Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Tuesday night’s vote was the culmination of three years of effort to bring the issue before the co-op’s 16,000 members, many of whom were eager to have the whole thing settled once and for all.

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